Colours
by HecateA
Summary: Teddy Lupin's hair is one big mood ring, and his life is one rainbow. -Oneshot


**First Harry Potter fanfiction in English- yeay! Little oneshot about one of my favorite families in the serie- or at least what's left of it- and a cute little couple that we barely got to know.**

**Anyways, it's 9:05, September 27- single digits 'til the Son of Neptune- huzzah, enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling would do this better. **

* * *

><p>11 year old Teddy was jumpy with excitement as he walked right through a brick wall with his godfather. Precision; it wasn't just any other brick wall because running into those sure didn't make his day; it was the brick wall that brought him to platform 9 ¾.<p>

Immediately he was submerged in what could have been a parallel universe. Squawking, screeching, squeaking, hissing and purring animals, the big red locomotive, the sparks flying in the air, the people running around in the total state of chaos that was September 1st…

Teddy stopped walking and Harry stopped waiting for him. He looked around in a daze, but quickly snapped out of it and jogged back to Harry's side.

"Pretty cool, isn't it?" Harry asked. Teddy nodded in awe.

"Are we all going to fit in a train?"

"That's never been a problem," Harry promised.

"Are there going to be enough bunks for everyone? Say 20 of us go to Gryffindor?"

"Then there'll be 20 bunks in the Gryffindor common room." Harry said. "Don't worry Teddy, there'll be room for you no matter where you end up."

"Kay," Teddy said, obviously still nervous. He was frail and tiny, and long, mousy and dull brown hair covered his pale, thin face and eyes. He was twisting small and long-fingered hands.

"Ted, you'll be okay. I promise. Hogwarts has some nice people, and you learn which staircases change quickly enough."

"The staircases change?"

"That's not the point," Harry said. "You'll fit right in at Hogwarts. Things will be fine, just go with everything and I'll be sounding like Ginny, Hermione and Andromeda right then, but just be you. It'll come, I promise."

"Did it come for you?"

"Yes; which proves that it will for anybody."

The engine steamed.

"You'll miss your train,"

"Thanks Harry." Teddy promised. He gave his godfather a hug and then Teddy hopped onto the train.

* * *

><p>"Gryffindor!" The hat yelled. Professor Acheson lifted the hat off his head and Teddy walked to the Gryffindor table, his heart free-styling around his chest. Up and down and left and right. There were a few gasps and people pointed to his hair, so when he sat down at the table he stared at his reflection in the back of a spoon. His hair had turned bright red, his eyes had flecks of gold in them and he was broad-shouldered.<p>

"Do you do that all the time?" Someone asked. Teddy looked at the guy sitting in front of him- brown shaggy hair and Persian eyes.

"Yeah, I'm a metamormagus," Teddy said. "I got it from my mom."

"That's cool. All I got from my mom is this stupid crooked nose. I wish I could change that one. I'm Carter Allsopp."

"Teddy Lupin," he said.

* * *

><p>"Well, we're going to go through attendance so I can know your names better." Miss Ayton said. Students raised their hands as the names passed.<p>

"Teddy Lupin." She called.

"Here," Teddy said. Miss Ayton studied him and struggled with a slippery memory she couldn't latch onto.

"Lupin… Remus Lupin, right? Wasn't he a werewolf?" Teddy's hair flashed bright red and his eyes became nearly all black.

"Yeah, and he died fighting against a dark wizard for the sake of people like you." Teddy snapped. Miss Ayton frowned at this.

"Excuse me, please don't use that tone."

"Then don't talk about my father that way." Teddy said simply. He'd dealt with this enough. He'd seen Gran, Harry, Hermione, Ron, Fleur, Bill and everyone around him dealing with it and he understood why and knew how.

"Do you want to be sent to the headmaster's office, Mr Lupin?"

"Sure, maybe he'll understand." Teddy said. Miss Ayton shot him one more look that meant that she wasn't going to forget this, and went on to 'Andrea May'.

* * *

><p>Teddy's eyes were stuck on the sorting hat and its stool. Next up was…<p>

"Victoire Weasley." Professor Acheson said. A short girl with blond hair and –Teddy knew it from knowing her- brown eyes like chocolate fondue walked up. She sat down on the stool with her hands on her laps and good posture as the hat dropped on her head. Teddy held his breath for her.

"That's her?" Renée asked.

"Yeah," Teddy said.

"Gryffindor!" The hat said out. Victoire got up with a smile playing on her lips and she glided over to the table. She sat down next to Teddy.

"Hey," he smiled.

"Hello," she said, sounding a bit breathless with excitement and relief. She started laughing.

"What?"

"Teddy, your hair's bright yellow." Victoire said laughing.

She giggled as Carter handed him her plate and Teddy checked out his reflection. His hair was spiky, standing up straight and bright yellow like a sunflower. His eyes shone bright grass green and clear, and he had freckled on his cheeks.

"You look like a dandelion." Carter said, which got Victoire laughing even more. Victoire Weasley has the most contagious laugh, so soon Teddy was laughing with her and Renée was giggling.

"And so the battle of Hogwarts ended on May 2nd 1998," Proffesor Binns said. "Can someone tell me who the two sides were?"

Andrea May's hand shot up.

"Miss May?"

"The Dark Lord and his servants the Death Eaters, and the wizarding community. You-know-who wanted to rule wizard kind and live forever and exterminate muggles and muggle-borns, and he managed to do it a few times."

Teddy's eyes went wandering and he saw Carter who was busy counting the spider webs hanging on the ceiling. He met his gaze and mouthed 'this is so boring'. Teddy mouthed back 'pay attention'.

"-And the castle was nearly completely destroyed which is why there are some old parts and new parts of the castle."

Andrea May had the excruciatingly annoying and nearly painful habit of answering simple questions with paragraphs and the answers to the next 5 questions Binns was planning on asking.

"Yes. The Battle of Hogwarts counted 50 deaths on the side of the Order of the Phoenix and allies, and an undetermined amount of deaths in death eater numbers. Can somebody name me some of the more famous deaths?"

People turned to face Teddy who stared at the ceiling to avoid it. He started counting the stones it was made out of. 1, 2, 3…

Jonno, a good friend in Hufflepuff who sat next to him, elbowed him.

"Teddy… Your hair."

"What about it?"

"Black." Jonno said. "It just switched to black."

* * *

><p>Victoire was trying to count the origami birds flying around the common room. Another proof of how desperate Carter was to do <em>anything <em>but History of Magic in class. She'd folded up 34 origami birds- but Teddy wasn't going to share that information.

"You're making them fly too fast, Teddy!" Victoire said.

"Count faster!"

"I can't, they keep moving!" Teddy laughed at Victoire's furrowed brow and directed the birds into the fireplace to feed the fire.

"34," Teddy told her. "Carter made 34."

"In one class? Shouldn't you be listening?" Victoire told Renée with a smile.

"Shouldn't you be minding your own business?" Carter said, not even looking up from the Divination notes spread out on her table. Charts of the stars, parchment with her tall and even letters, books open to pages covered in symbols that looked to Teddy like someone had just dropped rat brains on the paper.

"Don't laugh at me doing homework, Mr Citrus." Carter said.

"Citrus?"

"Your hair is completely lime green, Teddy. Are you perhaps having fun tantalising me?" Victoire said.

"Yes, as a matter of fact."

* * *

><p>Teddy stared across the hall in disbelief.<p>

Victoire –Victoire Weasley- holding onto the arm of a Ravenclaw boy with close-cropped brown hair, and a million galleon smile.

"Who's that?" He asked Carter. He looked up from her I've-got-a-test-second-period-I-should-really-study notes and at Victoire and the unknown Ravenclaw.

"You tell me." He said. Teddy set, his teeth on edge as Victoire laughed at something her friends were saying.

* * *

><p>"So, who is he?" Teddy asked. Victoire turned around and sat up straighter, to look over the back of the armchair.<p>

"Sorry?" She asked.

"The guy you were with, in the great hall." Victoire's cheeks became touched with pink.

"None of your business."

"Yes it is."

"What do you mean, 'yes it is'? You're not even really family!"

"I basically am. And worst-case scenario I know your parents."

"Teddy!" Victoire said.

"Who is he?"

"His name's Antoine Dufort." Victoire said.

"I've hear bad stuff around him."

"He transferred from Beauxbatons this year," Victoire said. "He doesn't speak English very well, so I'm helping him."

_Whoops… _Teddy looked around awkwardly and caught his reflection on a cauldron someone had left lying around- his hair was a pale red- like a tomato going from green to red.

"Why do you care so much?" Victoire asked, shutting her astronomy book, and getting up.

"No reason, you know. Just, some random guy, you're holding his arm in the great hall…"

"And so?"

"Well, you're like; I don't want him to…"

"Are you _jealous_?" Victoire asked.

"Me? Pff- no, why would I be?"

"Because your hair just turned green and on a colour index-"

"A what now?"

"A colour index. My Grandpa told me that muggles have something called mood rings. They're cheap and palsit or something, and they do not work, but depending on the colour the ring takes, they say that it tells your mood. But your hair, Teddy, isn't cheap and plastic. It tells a story. Whenever someone talks about your parents, your hair turns ash, ash black. If you're happy it turns yellow. It's like those muggle mood rings, so I looked up a bunch of colours on something Aunt Hermione showed me, the Interweb or something like that, and that's what green means."

"And you noticed this because..?"

Victoire's cheeks turned pink.

"That doesn't matter!" She said. "Stay out of my personal life! If you really cared you'd have said something while I-"

"While I what?"

"That doesn't matter."

"No seriously Tory."

"No it doesn't."

"Yes it does."

"I never said a thing."

"Yeah I know, I'm asking."

"While I liked you, okay?" Victoire snapped. "That's the only reason I remembered what Grandpa said and why I actually figured out what all those buttons were meant for on the camputer! I wanted to know what love was for, and love is red, but you're only red when you're embarrassed and it's not a vibrant and alive red! _Franchement! _I dropped some hints but you didn't get it, so I got over you and you're back to being my best friend and my best friend only and now you give a- oh!" She said, her palms squished on her temples, and her fingers wrapped in her hair.

"You… You did?"

"Yes! I had a massif crush on you, Teddy Lupin, I found more things that I liked about you in a second than if I stared at Antoine for an hour with my eyes under and unblinkable curse!" Victoire said. She let out a groan of frustration and stomped off to her dorm.

* * *

><p>"Hey, Victoire?" Teddy said when he saw her in the hallway. She turned back and gave him a look. Her hair was put up in a high ponytail and it nearly <em>slid<em> down between her shoulder blades; her bangs pulled out of her face by a metal hairband. Her brown eyes were cold. Winter cold. Antarctica winter cold.

"Yes?"

"Umm, hi." Teddy said. He felt uncomfortable; he didn't think she'd be this harsh with him.

"Hello." She said. And then she turned around, and went down to the dungeons without even letting go of a poker face that chilled Teddy to the bone.

Teddy turned around and trekked to the Charms class.

"Feeling a little blue today, Mr Lupin, or are you trying out a new look?" Professor Flitwick squeaked.

"I'm blue?"

"Gray-blue, if you really want to go into details. Or your hair at least- oh, and eyes now that you mention it."

"Go figures," Teddy said, swinging his bag under his chair.

* * *

><p>Teddy leaned on the counter of shell cottage.<p>

"Need any help?" He asked Victoire. She looked up from the potatoes she was pealing for Christmas dinner. Fleur had kicked Molly out of the kitchen for this one holiday, and she'd gone to help Dominique for a minute, leaving them alone.

"_Non_," Victoire said softly. Teddy chewed on his lip.

"Look, I wanted to talk to you about, you know, mood rings and colour indexes and the- wait, no, that didn't come out right."

"Yeah- I wanted to talk about that too." Victoire said, putting the potato down. "I'm sorry I ever said anything, it was a bit stupid. Forget about it, can we be friends again? I haven't talked to you forever and I miss you."

"Yeah, me too." Teddy said, although that only applied to 'I miss you'.

Her smile was bright, showing the top row of two perfect white teeth. Her lips were thin and her hair framed her face. She kissed his cheek and left when Ron or someone called her.

His fingertips brushed his cheek. He didn't get why it did anything to him. Fleur, Dominique, Louis- they all did it, French custom. Victoire had kissed him on the cheek before so…

_Green with jealousy._

When Teddy followed her out he caught a reflection of himself in a mirror decorated with mosaics. It looked like someone had tipped a can of paint on Teddy's head. The grey colour was spreading across his scalp, like the mood inside of him.

Somehow, in that Weasley way, everyone fit in the house for supper. The 5 Potters, the 4 Granger-Weasleys, George, Angelina, Roxanne and Fred, Charlie, Percy, Audrey, Molly, Lucy, Teddy, his grandmother, Molly, Arthus, Fleur, Gabrielle, Bill, Victoire, Louis and Dominique. That was a record even by Weasley standards.

Fire crackers exploded around the cottage every now and then, sending the dog barking every time until Fleur got up and went to snap at him to be quiet in French. People were laughing at various jokes. Even if he was talking to Victoire while balancing a plate of mashed potatoes, turkey, and a dozen other delicious things on his knees, his hair stayed grey.

That hadn't been what Teddy had wanted to tell Victoire.

* * *

><p>"Teddy- you love shepherd's pie, why are you playing with it?" Ginny asked him. His fork was flicking potatoes across his plate, left and right.<p>

"I'm not hungry."

"Teddy, you're _always _hungry." Ginny insisted. "What's wrong? You don't look okay recently."

"I'm fine Ginny." Teddy promised her. She raised an eyebrow, not buying it.

"Mummy!" Lily yelled from outside. "James has my snitch!"

"I don't care who has your snitch, just one snitch out isn't good." Ginny muttered, getting up and running for the back door. Harry looked at Teddy.

"She's right you know. Your mom used to do that."

"Used to do what?" Teddy asked.

"Well, she was depressed at some point, and she stopped being all colourful. Someone told you about the bubble-gum pink, right?"

"Yeah," Teddy said.

"She turned all mousy brown. That's exactly what you're doing right now. What's up?"

Teddy bit down on his tongue.

"Ginny will be back in a matter of minutes and she won't give up. I'll make no efforts to get her off your case if you don't tell me." Harry said.

"That's a threat."

"No it's not." Harry said. Teddy sighed.

"You know Victoire Weasley?"

"Yes."

"I found out she liked me last October and I liked her, but she thinks I thought she was being stupid, so she told me to forget about it but I can't forget about it because it's _her_." Teddy spat out in one long sentence. When he looked up Harry was smiling.

"Stop making fun of me!"

"I'm not making fun of you, Teddy; you're just completely red right now. Top to bottom."

"So what's that on the colour index?" Teddy mumbled.

"What colour index?" Harry asked.

"Tory thinks that I work like a muggle mood ring." Teddy said, "She thinks that depending on how I feel my hair switches colour all on its own. She's got it all figured out."

"She really likes you, hmm?" His godfather said.

"Liked." He corrected.

"You sure about that?"

"What do you mean?" Teddy asked. "She has a boyfriend, what's she supposed to do to make it clearer, put up a balloon and a flashing sign?"

"It's complicated with girls. Sometimes they like you and they just, well, they just pretend they like another guy or something."

"That's stupid."

"It happens." Harry said. "I think you should tell her."

"I think you're insane."

"I'm serious, you never know."

"You think, Harry?"

"Definitely."

"If you're giving him girl advice; Teddy wipe your mind of anything he told you and ask someone who actually has a clue." Ginny said, coming back in, balancing feisty Lily on her lip. She put Lily down and she went running across the house muttering about how not fair that way. Ginny tucked a snitch in Harry's jacket pocket and sat back down.

"He told me to go talk to her." Teddy said.

"See?" Harry told his wife.

"I'm sorry, but as I remember, you aren't smooth usually." Ginny said. Harry tried to protest but closed his mouth and nodded shamefully. Teddy laughed and he caught his reflection in a Foe-glass. Slowly fading back to grey-blue. Not electric; but closer.

* * *

><p>Victoire was a night owl. She liked being up late at night, and Teddy knew it. The fact she was back to talking to him made her more prone to sitting down in the common room with him only.<p>

Teddy couldn't sleep now if he tried to, he was full awake. His hair looked like he'd put his finger in an electrik sock or whatever it was and his eyes were wide.

He was at war with himself. There was the logical part and the lover's part, and the later was gaining ground. So what if she'd hated Teddy? She'd hated Teddy before, and yeah it'd hurt but… He hated himself right now and even if it hurt less than Victoire hating him. At the same time he knew that he couldn't hate himself and that he had to face that. Besides; Harry's 30 seconds of good girl advice shouldn't go to waste, right?

"Hey, Victoire?" Teddy asked, sitting down on the corner of the table she was working on. She looked up. Gods, she was beautiful. Just the way her honey blond hair fell on either side of her face, the way she kept her bangs out of her forehead with that metal hairband and let her brown eyes shine… She was holding a quill in one hand, and fingering a dangling, round gold earring with her other hand.

"Yeah?" She said. Teddy was caught in a moment with how her lips moved. This was the kind of thing Teddy had heard about and sniggered at- really? Lips were the only thing the dudes in sappy romance novels could find that was attractive? (Then again; at least 20 pages of description with long words was a regulation for being sold in stands in front of wand shops and such.)

But then he looked at Victoire's thin lips and how they smiled and formed her words…

Maybe he could go on for 20 pages.

"Umm, yeah, I had to talk to you. I mean, I have to talk to you, I still have to talk to you, umm…"

"Drabbling," Victoire said. She leaned in towards him and let go of her earring to finger a strand of his hair. "Shaky colours, are you, like, confused or scared of something? Do I have fangs?"

No clue why.

No clue where the idea came from.

No clue why he did it.

But Teddy leaned in more and touched his lips to Victoire's. She was surprised at first but she kissed him back and she ran a hand through his hair, and he held her by the waist. The kiss ended and their noses were still touching, foreheads touching.

"That's what you were planning on saying?" Victoire asked.

"Well, I was planning on something a little more verbal, but yeah." Teddy said. Victoire laughed.

"That's okay Bubble-gum head, you're a good kisser." She said.

"Bubble-gum head?"

"Pink and red on the colour index; bright red and pink, like Valentine's Day." Victoire said.

"Will you be my valentine?" Teddy asked her. "Oh man, that sounded cliché."

"Will 'of course, duh' count as cliché too?" Victoire asked.

"Cliché's good."

* * *

><p>Teddy was fingered golden loops, toying with it. She didn't mind, she just relaxed her head on his knees and listened to the radio playing.<p>

They'd argued about the radio- Teddy was more of a wizard rock type –Flaming Cauldrons, Snapped Wands, Bucking Hippogriffs, etc.- and Victoire liked pop, which Teddy couldn't stand mostly. Finally Gran had put on a classical music station, which was sort-of okay, although it was just background music to Teddy's thoughts.

"You know the story of why your hair is always blue, Teddy?" Gran asked Teddy. He looked up and shook his head. He said,

"No."

"You were just a toddler and I often took care of both you and Victoire, while Fleur was busy with another baby or working. You two got along wonderfully. Of course not as well as today, but you were only children. And then one day you asked her what her favourite colour was, and she said pink. You said that that was a little girl colour, and then she said blue. Your hair has always been electric blue since. I am surprised you forgot that story," Gran said.

Victoire tilted her head up, met his eyes with a smile and said; "Don't feel like you have to keep your hair blue Teddy, I like all your colours."


End file.
